On a Wednesday morning, Jeff Richards, Associate Professor of Architecture at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, raced against the rising sun. With the help of two students, he carefully placed cardboard stencils across the green expanse of the campus courtyard. One by one, the stencils were painted over to reveal a Benjamin Franklin quote that would become the throughline for the next several months: 

“At present, we are like the separate filaments of flax before thread is formed, without strength because without connection.”

By the time thousands of Philadelphians encounter Franklin Thread, the 2026 Art on the Parkway commission, moments like these will already be invisible. The completed work hides the many days, conversations, and ideas that have shaped its final iteration, but one element remains clear: connection.  

Each year, Art on the Parkway holds a juried open call organized by the Association for Public Art (aPA) in partnership with the Parkway Council and Philadelphia Parks and Recreation (PPR) to commission a temporary public art installation in Maja Park on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.  

As the first project that integrates plant life and built work in the Art on the Parkway’s three-year history, Franklin Thread quickly captured the attention of the jurors for its ability to thread the needle about community, history, and presence during America’s 250th. This year’s theme, “Art as Catalyst,” took shape through Jeff Richards’ Franklin Thread in the form of interconnectedness. 

“Franklin Thread struck the perfect balance—it reflects the vulnerability, mutability, and tenacity of nature while recognizing the accomplishments, fragility, and contradictions of our country’s founding and 250-year history,” said Charlotte Cohen, Executive Director of the aPA. “We hope people will learn about the potential for sustainable innovation using flax, a material deeply connected to the industry and ideas on which this nation has based its political, economic, and moral development. It was a very important product in the 1700s, thus the quote by Benjamin Franklin. How can it help build the future?” 

From a bird’s-eye view, Franklin Thread moves like a golden string across Maja Park, offering an opportunity for passers-by to engage with one of the city’s oldest and most cherished plant materials: flax.  

“Linum usitatissimum,” said Richards, “Latin for ‘most useful fiber’ or ‘most useful thread.’ In the pre-war period, Franklin’s era, it supported Philadelphia’s huge textile industry and early agricultural and colonial economies.” 

In its entirety, the installation is a 400-foot-long runway of flax leading up to the Maja statue. It includes 175 feet of plots with 5-foot-wide passthroughs on either end, allowing the flax to be planted and harvested twice during the lifespan of the installation. The plots are bound by flax twine held on rope stakes to direct park visitors.  

Another 100 feet of the thread features the “dew retting” of flax, or the process by which the plant’s fibers are separated from its core through contact with moisture. Each section of the retting flax is inscribed with a piece of the quote by Benjamin Franklin. There is also a 50-foot sculptural wall made from “flaxcrete,” which is a biogenic building material made up of flax shive, mineral binder and flax fiber. Participants are invited to explore the different uses of flax through an interactive community program with Richards, where he demonstrates the various development processes. 

"Flaxcrete” resulted from Richards teaching at the Ambler Design / Build Institute, where he leads class instruction every year. In 2025, the student-focused creation lab investigated carbon-positive building materials for a sustainable future. Richards guided architecture students through the design and experimentation process. The project culminated in the installation of a "bird blind,” or a structure used in bird watching to camouflage wildlife observers, at Temple's Ambler Campus as well as an exhibition on Main Campus.  

“There’s a movement in architectural design that calls for more ecological thinking in how we create building materials,” Richards said. “Flax is an excellent material in this regard, as it’s versatile and carbon neutral. In developing this commission, I was inspired by working with the students last year. They did some interesting things.” 

While not a substitute for concrete, “flaxcrete” does serve as a promising building material for other architectural applications like cladding, insulation, and flooring, according to Richards. He is also actively exploring flax’s ability to absorb toxins for brownfield remediation. Brownfields are unused or previously developed properties that may carry hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants, making development unsafe. 

"I developed this in collaboration with the Ambler Design / Build Institute, the Urban Workshop, New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC), and more recently, a Frankford-based community organization called Delivering Services with Love,” Richards said. “The process of remediation would be a very long one. It would take many years, but the first step is that I've taken a soil sample at a site on Large Street, which is almost certainly a brownfield site. It's immediately next to a former railway and also a car salvage lot. That's just one example of how the manipulation of this plant is just like Franklin's idea—connecting me with people that I otherwise wouldn't be connected with.” 

Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s Founding Fathers, lies at the center of the installation and serves as another historical element that is inextricably tied to Philadelphia. His quote, a meditation on the symbology of flax as a community connector, runs along the expanse of Franklin Thread. Richards hopes it inspires the public to think of their connection to others and to the environment as the country looks toward the next 250 years. 

“While my focus began with ecological design, it quickly became connected to our place,” he said. “A revolutionary way of thinking in 2026 is thinking about our interdependence. The idea that humans aren’t independent of other systems—that we can live in a way that’s good for the environment. This project, and all the people I’ve worked with to develop it, has made me rethink so much of how we use land and engage in the public sphere.” 

Franklin Thread will be on display in Maja Park until October. For more information, visit this page.